AMA: Cisco Meraki Head of Product Marketing, Grant Shirk on Product Marketing KPIs

Time for some radical transparency.  I'm in the midst of this right now. Tomorrow is my 30-day milestone at Cisco Meraki. It's been an awesome first four weeks, and I'm really looking forward to what's next. (Shameless pitch - we're hiring, too!) The size of the company and team adds a layer of complexity here, but in general, this is your best chance to really focus on learning your customer, product, and market here. It's hard to go back and do this again, especially in growth mode, so don't t ...Read More

Pulling this one up. It's outside the realm of KPIs and measurement, but I think it's really critical. And I have a few strong opinions here.  If I can summarize this back, as part of your interview process, you were given an assignment to build an overall strategic plan to take a flagship product to market, do it under extreme time and emotional pressure, and summarize it all in a few hundred words.  To put it bluntly, this is a terrible way to assess someone's skills, is antithetical to what w ...Read More

Aim high, and ask for more than you think you'll need - but not by more than 15-20%. People will always be your biggest budget line item in PMM - we're the most valuable asset because structured thinking and positioning can't really be outsourced or delegated to software.However, key items that I would examine for fit in your budget: Content creation for top-of-funnel assets, separate from Content Marketing Video production (think $5-10K for an animated explainer video) to fill in gaps in your c ...Read More

Going to take my time with this one, as I think it combines a number of the other topics, but it's also critical, because PMM often sits at the center of all these things. Product launches are a big tentpole event in the lifecycle of a company and a product. Done right, they should drive traffic, leads, and opportunity creation (awareness, demand gen, and pipeline).  These are massive, coordinated efforts, but they're also not a point in time. No single day or event should make or break the futu ...Read More

There are two questions buried in here.  If you are truly in a situation where your leadership doesn't understand the impact of Product Marketing, are you in the right position? Product Marketing is challenging enough when you have buy-in and support from your leaders. I'd question why this is happening - perhaps you need to do some education around what is and what is not PMM. I can answer this one best from an enterprise/B2B point of view. At the end of the day, the role of PMM in a B2B sales ...Read More

This idea of cross-functional KPIs is core to what makes PMM the most interesting and the most challenging function to quantify. But, you can do it! Two things I believe strongly:  Cross-functional (or shared) KPIs are the most powerful KPIs any business or team can measure, because they're qualitative and quantitative and they force alignment across teams.  Product Marketing exists to amplify the impact of other teams. If you don't have shared metrics, you're probably amplifying only yourself, ...Read More

First and foremost, don't commit to any metrics until you really understand the current customer, buying cycle, and GTM approach, and have a point of view on what needs to change. I'm making a few assumptions here that as a "first in" you're further along on your career journey and have a sense of where to start. (If that's not the case, quickly find someone through your VC who can provide some advice here relevant to your problem! First PMM problems are often more qualitative. Who's the real cu ...Read More

This is what makes PMM so fun. And also a little chaotic. You're frequently context-shifting between strategic investments (a 12- to 18-month horizon), quarterly operational work (those "big rocks" and Tier 1 launches), and the daily/weekly/monthly execution below the scenes. And then a competitor (or new entrant) does something you have to react to. Engage competitive skillsets! I've found the best way to manage through this is through a few tools: Clearly establish what your high-impact priori ...Read More

I am a huge proponent of shared KPIs. Like Product Managers, Product Marketers often have to work through and influence other teams in order to reach their goals -- and, more aspirationally, to help their customers reach their goals. Shared metrics have superpowers. They drive alignment, accountability, and accuracy overall. They're quantitative and qualitative. Bit of a broken record here, but I really like Qualified Pipeline Generation ($), Average Deal Size, and Meetings Set/Opportunity creat ...Read More

This is related to that "first PMM" problem, but it's amplified as a leader. Product marketing at a startup needs to drive the conversation about who you're marketing to, why they care, and how you're unique, but you have to do that quickly and show some early wins. If you're stepping in to help amplify the work of an existing team, there are probably some objectives you're going to inherit. Job 1 is to understand better than everyone else how those are measured and where the data comes from. No ...Read More

One, I have never met two PMMs who came to product marketing through the same path; and two, the metrics you care most about are deeply influenced by your product, market, and customer.The short version is I fell into it, and then fell in love with it.The longer version: I started my career in user experience design, back when the Nokia 6100 was the coolest thing on the market (and definitely the best phone for Snake). We were designing apps and OS software for mobile phones, and way ahead of ou ...Read More

Well, to quote Rush, "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." I would say the worst thing you can do is not commit to something. Pick one and roll with it - you can always adjust if it doesn't fit the business. Owning a number is the best way to establish leadership and priorities. The worst are metrics that don't directly lead to revenue. "Site traffic, asset downloads, content creation, the PMM seeks not these things." Find the outputs that align with your key GTM partners ...Read More